The Free Software Community is Gaining Momentum as Its Importance is More Broadly Realised
Last night RMS gave his first talk in Europe (so far this year) and he'll give another talk on Monday. RMS is nowadays filling very large auditoriums and people largely agree with what he has long said. Some agree only reluctantly or partially (example from yesterday [1]).
The "RMS is right" or "Stallman is right" so-called 'meme' gained momentum in recent years because many times when really bad things happen (e.g. Amazon's CCTV network, Android locking things down) people point out that RMS predicted and warned well in advance.
As long as "trendy" technology goes in a negative direction there will be a growing portion in society looking for alternatives. Free software communities are typically eager to provide these. The backlash makes such communities a lot stronger and growingly relevant. █
________
[1]
Richard Stallman Is Right: Most AI Output IS “Pretend Intelligence.” But Not for the Reason He Thinks.
He’s right that most AI output is pretend intelligence. He’s right that the systems are predicting tokens rather than “understanding” in any philosophically robust sense. He’s right that the marketing around AI dramatically overstates what these systems actually do.
[...]
If Stallman is right (mechanism is the limitation), then AI will never produce genuinely intelligent output regardless of architectural innovation. The correct response is to use AI as a simple tool — a fancy autocomplete — and stop pretending it’s anything more. Investment in AI alignment, consciousness research, and architectural innovation is wasted effort.
[...]
I want to be clear about what I’m not arguing. I’m not arguing that current AI systems are intelligent. I’m not arguing that Stallman’s concerns about AI hype are misplaced. I’m not arguing that the public isn’t being misled about what these systems can do.
On all of those points, Stallman is correct and courageous to say so publicly.
The AI industry IS overhyping its products. The marketing IS misleading. The public DOES misunderstand what these systems are doing. The word “intelligence” in “artificial intelligence” IS doing more work than the technology currently justifies.